On Hybrid Full-/Half-Duplex MAC Protocol Design

For Cognitive Radio Networks

Sayantan Chowdhury1, Puspal Chatterjee1, Aishanee Sinha1, Amitava Mukherjee2, Mrinal K. Naskar1, Sandipan
Sengupta2
1

Dept. of ETCE, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

2
IBM India Private Limited, Kolkata 700156, India
sc.juetce@gmail.com, puspalchatterjee810@gmail.com, aishanee.sinha@gmail.com, amitava.mukherjee@in.ibm.com,
mrinaletce@gmail.com, sansengu@in.ibm.com

AbstractFor a long while, it had been considered that

radios must operate over half-duplex channels. However,
recent studies have shown that it is possible to use fullduplex mode for radio communication i.e., allowing
transmission and reception simultaneously. Indeed the
full-duplex mode, when applied to cognitive radio
networks (CRNs), has a tremendous impact. In this paper,
we propose a MAC protocol using full-duplex intrusive
mode when the channel is idle and half-duplex nonintrusive mode when the channel is busy. We discuss and
compare elaborately how the handoff between these two
modes will take place to utilize the spectrum bands and
achieve maximum throughput. Finally we test the
performance of our MAC protocol design through
extensive simulation and show that our design performs
better than the existing ones.
Keywords: Cognitive radio network; dynamic spectrum
access; overlay, underlay and interweaving approach; half
duplex and full duplex mode; intrusive and non intrusive
spectrum sharing; MAC protocol
I.

INTRODUCTION

CRN [1]-[2] is a promising technology now-a-days to

confront the scarcity of spectrum bands. The unlicensed users
or secondary users (SUs) sense the spectrum and transmit over
the channel when the licensed users or primary users (PUs)
are not using the channel. However the SUs must leave those
channels as soon as the PUs claim them back. Thus for
efficient spectrum sharing, the SUs should transmit data
without affecting PUs transmission. In [3], it was clearly
stated that spectrum sharing can be done in three basic ways:
(i) overlay, (ii) interweaving and (iii) underlay. In overlay
technique, SUs are supposed to sense PUs and modify their
transmission characteristics to carry PUs data packets with
their own energy and send their own packets with the rest of
the energy. Thus in overlay approach, SUs must have the
knowledge of PUs packet transmission times beforehand
which is infeasible in practical scenario. In interweaving
approach, SUs sense the channels and transmit their data

packets if PU is OFF and leave the channel if PU is ON.

Hence, it is known as intrusive mode of spectrum sharing.
And finally in underlay approach, SUs always transmit below
the noise floor of the channel. Therefore, they do not cause
destructive interference with the PU even when they are ON,
and thus they need not leave the channel when the PU is
reactivated. So, it is called non intrusive mode of spectrum
sharing. In this paper, we focus on interweaving and underlay
approach. Previously, we proposed co-operative sensing and
allocation schemes for CRN [4]-[5]. In [6], a selection
procedure between interweaving and underlay approach, when
PU is OFF, was proposed. The authors in [7] investigated
power and data rate allocation in underlay CRNs. But all these
were done for half duplex channels. In half-duplex channels,
spectrum sensing can be done only by sacrificing data
transmission time. In full-duplex mode, sensing and data
transmission can be done simultaneously over the entire frame
duration. However, the disadvantage of full-duplex mode is
the residual self-interference which is absent in the half-duplex
mode. Hence, in this paper, we propose an efficient MAC
protocol combining underlay and interweaving approaches and
utilizing both full and half-duplex modes of wireless
communication.
CONTRIBUTION
In a nutshell, our contribution can be summarized as,

We design a hybrid MAC protocol incorporating both

half and full-duplex modes of transmission. Also we
compare underlay and interweaving techniques of
spectrum sharing under half and full-duplex modes
and establish that our design is more efficient.
We give performance analysis of our proposed
design. Further we maximize average normalized
throughput by defining an optimization problem and
subsequently relax this optimization problem using
Lagrangean multipliers and finally solve this problem
using subgradient heuristic [8].
We provide extensive simulation results and compare
our proposed design with existing ones to conclude
that our protocol performs better and hence the
throughput is improved.

Pint erweaving (t )

PAPER ORGANIZATION
Rest of the paper is organized as follows: In section II we
provide the design of our MAC protocol. We discuss about
the pros and cons of interweaving and underlay approaches.
Further we give a detailed comparison between full and half
duplex modes in this section. The details of our proposed
MAC protocol and mathematical analysis are elaborately
discussed in section III. Performance evaluation of the
proposed design is shown in section IV. Section V discusses
the future research opportunities and thereafter concludes the
paper.
II.

DESIGN OF HYBRID FULL-/HALF-DUPLEX

COGNITIVE MAC PROTOCOL

In this section we propose a hybrid MAC protocol in which

SUs transmit in full-duplex interweaving mode when the PU
is OFF and use half-duplex underlay technique when PU is
ON. We shall proceed to show that in this design the
throughput is maximized and the channnel is utilised more
efficently by making comparisons between the half and fullduplex modes in both the interweaving and underlay
approaches. Table 1 summerizes the notations used in this
paper.

I allowable

Transmission power of SUs in interweaving

approach as function of time
Maximum allowable interference between PU
and SUs

A. Network Model
We consider a single channel where the duration of OFF
period of PU follows a probability distribution with
probability density function (pdf), A 0 (t ) and cumulative
distribution function (cdf), C 0 (t ) . It is already shown in
empirical spectrum measurement data [9], [10] that heavytailed or exponentially tailed distributions are the most
appropriate to approximate PUs ON/OFF duration. Thus we
assume that the ON and OFF period of PU, TON and TOFF are
approximately known to SUs (Refer to Appendix A).
B. Hybrid Full-/Half-Duplex MAC Protocol

Table 1: Notation
Symbol
Pd and Pf

Meaning
Probability of detection and probability of false
alarm respectively

Pd

Target probability of detection

fs

Sampling frequency

Mitigation coefficient

Threshold for energy-based sensing

2
u

Channel noise level

Signal to noise ratio (SNR)

u and i

SNR for underlay and interweaving approach

respectively

Sensing time

Td

Data slot

Total frame duration

TON and TOFF

ON and OFF duration of PU respectively

01 and10

Transition times of SUs

B
g ( s 2 p ) (t )

Punderlay (t )

Average normalized throughput

Path Gain from SU to PU as function of time
Transmission power of SUs in underlay
approach as function of time

Fig. 1: Hybrid Full-/Half-Duplex MAC Protocol

In our proposed MAC protocol, SUs will transmit in fullduplex interweaving mode when PU is OFF; simultaneously
they will sense the channel by full-duplex spectrum sensing
(FD-SS). (Fig.1) As soon as they sense that PU has switched
to ON state, SUs will change their transmission mode from
full-duplex interweaving to half-duplex underlay. Practically
this transition will not be instantaneous and there will be some
delay. We denote this transition time as 01 (Fig. 1). After SUs
enter in underlay mode, they calculate 01 by optimizing
normalized throughput and synchonise their clock with PU.
The SUs will transmit data in underlay mode for ( TON 01 )
time and then it will start spectrum sensing. In Fig.1, we can
consider that PU will switch from ON to OFF state at the same
point of time as we assume that PU is following a probability
distribution over a long time and SUs closely synchronise
themselves with PU. After sensing the channel for 10 time
(Fig. 1), when SUs sense that PU is OFF, they switch their
transmission mode from half-duplex underlay to full-duplex
interweaving. However, if PU is still ON, SUs will continue
sensing till they find that PU is OFF. In a similar manner SUs
calculate the transition time 10 by optimizing throughput,
synchronise their clock with PU and remain in interweaving
mode untill PU is ON again. The above process is repeated
and thus, we always achieve maximum throughput with a
target probability of detection, Pd .
C. Comparison between full and half-duplex modes

We consider the general binary hypothesis model of H0, when

PU is OFF and H1,when PU is ON:
H0: y(n) = u(n)

(1)

H1: y ( n) = k s ( n) + u ( n)
(2)
Where u(n) represents the zero-mean additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) with variance u2 and k is the
residual self-interference mitigation coefficient; 0 < k 1 ; k
describes the effect of self interference on full duplex
communication [11]. When k 0 , the effect of interference is
large on signal y(n) received at SU. And when k 1 , the effect
of interference is lowered. As in the case of half-duplex
communication, there is no scope for self-interference, we can
consider k=1 for half-duplex mode; whereas, k<1 for fullduplex mode.
The general expressions for Pd and Pf can be given as follows
[10]:

f s

Pd ( , k , ) = Q 2 k 1
k + 1

u

(3)

Pf ( , k , ) = Q 2 1 f s

(4)

Target probability of detection Pd can be determined from

equations (3) and (4). Now for Pd ,

Pf ( k , ) = Q ( k + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + k f s

(5)

Hence, the normalized throughput is given by [13]:

B(k , ) = Td (1 Pf (k , ))

Where, Td =

(6)

Data Transmissi on(DT) time

Total frame duration, T

Therefore, sensing time for half-duplex channels is given by:

= T (1 Td ) (Note that this expression is not valid for fullduplex mode).
Let us investigate normalized throughput under half and fullduplex modes.
Case I: For half-duplex mode
< T ; Td < 1; k = 1
So, from (6),

( )

B HD = Td 1 Q ( + 1) Q 1 Pd + T (1 Td ) f s

Case II: For full-duplex mode

= T ; Td = 1; k < 1 .
So, from (6),

B FD = 1 Q ( k + 1) Q 1 ( Pd ) + k Tf s

))

(7)

(8)

From eq. (7) and (8), when BFD < BHD ,

1 Q ( k + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + k Tf s

1 Q ( + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + T (1 Td ) f s

)<T

(9)

Again, when BFD > BHD , as Td < 1 always,

Q 1 ( Pd )(1 k ) < ( k 1 T d ) Tf s

(10)
Lemma 1: The inequality stated in eq. (10) holds for standard
values of parameters if k 2 > 1 Td .
Proof: Q1 ( x) < 0, if x > 1 2

> 0, if x < 1

For protection of PUs, we generally set Pd as high as possible

i.e. greater than 0.5 in real scenario. So, the LHS of eq. (10) is
negative, which implies if k 1 Td > 0 , the inequality
trivially holds, since T and f s are positive. Therefore, we
have k 2 > 1 Td .
Lemma 2: BFD > BHD when SNR is high and self-interference
is low. And
BFD < BHD when SNR is low and selfinterference is high.
Proof: The above statement holds if inequalities of eq.(9) and
eq. (10) are satisfied. For example, taking standard values of
parameters
for
real
case
scenario,
e.g. Pd = 0.9, T = 1ms, Td = 0.8 , f s = 6MHz , we can verify that
BFD > BHD holds for = 5dB and k = 0.8 .
Again, with same values of parameters, BFD < BHD holds
for = 15dB and k = 0.2 . The smaller value of k in later case
indicates higher self-interference.
The comparison (Lemma 2) made above clearly shows
that for high SNR and low interference regime, the full-duplex
mode will produce better throughput, whereas, the half-duplex
mode will result into better throughput for low SNR and high
interference regime.
Since in case of interweaving technique when PU is OFF,
SUs can transmit with maximum power and therefore, SNR is
high and interference is lowered. So, full-duplex mode should
be employed for interweaving technique. Whereas, in case of
underlay approach when the PU is ON, maximum
transmission power of SUs is limited by noise level of the
channel. Hence, the SNR is much lower and interference is
larger. So, half-duplex mode should be used for underlay
technique.
Hence, in a real case scenario, the SUs should transmit in
full-duplex interweaving mode when PU is OFF and use halfduplex underlay technique when PU is ON, to maximize the
throughput and utilize the channel properly.
III. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF OUR HYBRID
FULL-/HALF-DUPLEX COGNITIVE MAC PROTOCOL
We must know the transition times 01 and 10 precisely by
optimizing the throughput. The normalized throughput for
full-duplex interweaving mode is given by eq. (8). Now, from
Fig. 1, for full-duplex mode,
T = TOFF + 01
(11)
Again, SNR for interweaving mode = i
Plugging eq. (11) in eq. (8), the normalized throughput when
PU is OFF (SNR= i ) can be written as:

( (

B0 = 1 Q ( k i + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + k i (TOFF + 01 ) f s

))

(12)
Again, for half-duplex underlay mode, from Fig. 1,
T = TON 01 + 10
(13)
And DT time = TON 01
(14)

Therefore, Td =

TON 01
TON 01 + 10

(15)

We consider Pd , Td , k as fixed parameters of the network.

Let SNR for underlay mode be u ( u << i as discussed in
section II).
Now, substituting T from eq. (13) and Td from eq. (15) into
eq. (7), normalized throughput when PU is ON (SNR= u ) is
given as follows:

( (

))

TON 01
1 Q ( u + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + u 10 f s
(16)
B1 =

TON 01 + 10
Now, let B( 01,10 ) be the average normalized throughput as a

function of 01 and 10 .
Then, from eq. (12) and eq. (16), the optimization problem
can be formulated as:
Max : B( 01,10 ) = 1 [B0 ( 01,10 ) + B1 ( 01,10 )]
2
01,10

1 < Td

s.t .

(17)

(Refer to Appendix B). Compute 1j , 2j .

( )

4. if L j < min {L ( )} do

( )

(i) min {L ( )} L j

(ii) * j
(iii) i 1
5. else compute Bcurrent
j *
*
6. if Bcurrent > Bbest do Bbest Bcurrent ; 01
01
;10 10j

2 < Pd (from eq. (10))

(17.2)

7. endif
8. endif
9. if i> I max (upper limit)

< k 2 (from proposition 1 and eq. (15))

(17.3)

(i)

01

Pint erweaving (t ) g

(s2 p)

(t ) dt I allowable

(17.4)

0
TOFF + TON + 10

underlay

Where,

( )

j
3. Solve L j using j as set of multipliers and obtain 01
,10j

(17.1)

10

TOFF +

(ii) Select an initial set of multipliers, 10 , 02 .

(iii) Set iteration counter, j0 and improvement
counter i0.
(iv) Stepsize parameter, 0 (0 < 0 2)
2. do ii+1, jj+1

(from eq. (9))

TON 01 + 10

Algorithm 1: Subgradient heuristic for solving optimization

problem (17) with Lagrangean relaxation
1. Initialization:
(i) Set Bbest 0.

01

1 =

( t ) g ( s 2 p ) ( t ) dt u2

(17.5)

1 Q ( k i + 1)Q 1 ( Pd ) + k i (TON 01 + 10 ) f s

1 Q ( i + 1)Q ( Pd ) + i 10 f s

(by eq. (9), (13) and (15))

10
k
(TOFF + 01) f s

+
ON
01
10

2 = Q
1 k

(18)

s.t. constraints (17.4) and (17.5)

where 1, 2 are Lagrange multipliers. To solve this complex
*
*
optimization problem that will find out optimal 01
, we
, 10
propose an algorithm (Algorithm 1) using subgradient
heuristic [8].

) ( )( )

L * Bcurrent

|| ( min ) || t j t min
||
then STOP.
j
*

( = error tolerance)
12. endif
13. New subgradient:
(i) 1j = Td 1j Pd 2j

(ii) 2j = k 2

L( ) = max [B0 ( 01,10 ) + B1 ( 01,10 )]

2

(ii) j
(iii) i0
(iv) goto step 2.
10. endif
11. if (j> J max (upper limit))

(using eqs. (10), (11) and (15))

Note that constraints (17.1) and (17.2) are interconnected in
the sense that they give upper and lower bound of
Pd respectively. So, taking them together, we obtain the
Lagrangean relaxation of the optimization problem stated in
(17) as:

10
+ 1 (Td 1 ) Pd 2 + 2 k 2

ON
01
10

)(

10j
j
TON 01
+ 10j

(iii) New stepsize, t j = .

( )

L j Bcurrent
|| j ||2

(iv) 1j +1 = 1j + t j 1j
(v) 2j +1 = 2j + t j 2j
14. goto step 2 while i I max and j J max .
15. end do-while

IV.

SIMULATION RESULTS

In this section, we show the performance of full and half

duplex modes in case of underlay and interweaving
approaches on the basis of normalized throughput. Table 2
lists the values of the parameters we assume throughout the
simulation (if not specified otherwise):
Table 2: Simulation environment parameters

Parameters

Values

Target probability of detection,

Sampling frequency,

fs

Pd

0.9
6 MHz

Td

0.8

Total frame duration, T

1 ms

Noise level

-95.2 dBm

k for underlay approach

0.2

k for interweaving approach

0.8

Fig. 4: Optimization of Average Normalized throughput w.r.t.

01 and 10 .
In Fig. 4, we plot average normalized throughput against
transition times, 01 and 10 to show the joint effect. Here we
find the optimum point (indicated by a star symbol) by
implementing Algorithm 1 to solve (17). The maximum
throughput is 0.9650 corresponding to 01 =820 s and
10 =510 s .

Fig. 2: Comparison between half and full-duplex modes in

case of interweaving approach
In Fig. 2, we present normalized throughput vs SNR for
interweaving approach to compare between full and halfduplex modes. The graph shows that for interweaving
approach, full-duplex mode performs better than half-duplex
mode
in
terms
of
throughput.

Fig. 5: Comparison of our proposed Hybrid MAC protocol

with Half-duplex MAC and Full-duplex MAC.

Fig. 3: Comparison between half and full-duplex modes in

case of underlay approach
Fig. 3 illustrates the comparison between full and half-duplex
mode for underlay approach in low SNR regime. On the basis
of achievable throughput, undoubtedly half-duplex mode is
more suitable than full-duplex mode for underlay approach.

Fig. 5 shows the comparison of our proposed hybrid half-/fullduplex MAC protocol with pure full-duplex and pure halfduplex MAC in terms of throughput. We observe that in the
low SNR regime, half-duplex MAC results into better
throughput than full-duplex MAC. But as SNR increases,
normalized throughput of full-duplex MAC rapidly increases
and performs better than half-duplex MAC. On the other
hand, our proposed hybrid MAC always provides higher
throughput than other two MAC protocols throughout the
whole SNR range [-25dB, -5dB]. This clearly shows why it is
more beneficial to use hybrid MAC instead of only full or only
half-duplex mode of communication and therefore, aptly
justifies the efficiency of our proposed MAC protocol in this
paper.

V.

CONCLUSION

= 0

L( )

=
0

10j

L( j )

In this paper, we have discussed the advantages and

disadvantages of both full and half-duplex wireless
communication. On the basis of our discussion, we have
proposed a throughput-efficient hybrid full-/half-duplex MAC
protocol. Through strong mathematical analysis and extensive
simulation results, we have shown that our proposed MAC
will perform better than the existing full or half-duplex MAC
protocols. Our proposed design has been developed on the
basic periphery of cognitive radio networks, providing the
space for further analysis on the pillar of our framework. We
have considered a single channel. Further research may
include the effect of interference for a more complex network
including different channel models, e.g., Rayleigh fading,
Rician fading, Nakagami-m fading channels etc. In this paper,
we have considered Gaussian noise which can be replaced by
other real case noise distribution models. Moreover, our work
contains the theoretical analysis of our proposed MAC.
Designing a system model to show the performance of our
proposed hybrid MAC will be a noble work with excellent
impact on the future research in CRNs.
APPENDIX A: APPROXIMATION OF TON AND TOFF
Our idea is to approximate PUs ON/OFF duration by
probability distribution. Let the OFF duration of PU follows
pdf, A 0 (t ) and cdf, C 0 (t ) and ON duration follows pdf, A 1(t )
and cdf, C 1(t ) .
Now, assuming that the OFF duration is independent of the
ON duration, the probability that throughout arbitrary time
duration t, PU is OFF is given by:

j
01
j

Solving above system of differential equations by RungeKutta method, we get, 01j and 10j as functions of 1j , 2j .
j
01
= f (1j , 2j )

j
10 = g (1j , 2j )

POFF (t ) =

[1] J. Mitola and G.Q. Maguire, Cognitive radios: Making

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

[6]

[7]

0 (t )dt

0 (t )dt

A (t)dt

C 0 (t )
C 0 (t ) + C 1(t )

(19)
[8]

When for t = TOFF , POFF (TOFF ) is greater than a user-defined

minimum value, we consider TOFF to be PUs OFF duration.
Similarly, PON (t ) = 1 POFF (t ) =

C 1 (t )
C 1 (t ) + C 0 (t )

(20)

Again, when for t = TON , PON (TON ) is greater than a userdefined minimum value, we consider TON to be PUs ON
duration. In this paper, we have mainly considered three
distributions: (i) Gamma distribution, (ii) Lognormal
distribution and (iii) Pareto distribution. Detail procedure of
estimating PUs ON/OFF duration can be found in [6].
APPENDIX B: HOW TO SOLVE L( j ) AT j th ITERATION
IN STEP 3 OF ALGORITHM 1
By taking partial derivatives of L( j ) w.r.t 01j and 10j
and setting them equal to zero, we get,

(22)
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(21)

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